March 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1785 - Louis XVII of France ((born Louis Charles, Duke of Normandy), the younger son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. His older brother, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, died in June 1789, a little over a month before the start of the French Revolution. At his brother's death he became the new Dauphin (heir apparent to the throne), a title he held until 1791, when the new constitution accorded the heir apparent the style of Prince Royal. When his father was executed on 21 January 1793, the middle period of the French Revolution, he succeeded as the king of France, Louis XVII. France was by then a republic, so he never actually ruled. But in 1814 after the Bourbon Restoration, his uncle acceded to the throne and was proclaimed Louis XVIII.

1851 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher. Few of his works are performed regularly today. His best known pieces are probably the Symphony on a French Mountain Air (Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français, also known as Symphonie cévenole) for piano and orchestra (1886), and Istar (1896), a symphonic poem in the form of a set of variations in which the theme appears only at the end. Vincent d'Indy's works show the influence of Franck, Berlioz and especially of Wagner. D'Indy helped revive a number of then largely forgotten early works, for example, making his own edition of Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'incoronazione di Poppea. His musical writings include the studies of Franck and Beethoven. (Vincent d'Indy Souvenirs, Poeme for Orchestra, Op. 62. Uploaded by Gunnar Frederikson. Accessed March 27, 2020.)

1863 - Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, OBE, English engineer famous for his designs of car and aeroplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity. With Charles Rolls (1877 – 1910) and Claude Johnson, he founded Rolls-Royce. He initially focused on large 40-50 horsepower motor cars, the Silver Ghost and its successors. Royce produced his first aero engine shortly after the outbreak of the First World War and aircraft engines became Rolls-Royce's principal product. His health broke down in 1911 and he was persuaded to leave his factory in the Midlands at Derby and, taking a team of designers, move to the south of England spending winters in the south of France.

1868 -  Patty Smith Hill, American songwriter and teacher who created our endeared "Happy Birthday" song.  She co-wrote the tune which was "Happy Birthday to You" later, simply "Happy Birthday". She was an American nursery school, kindergarten teacher, and key founder of the National Association for Nursery Education (NANE) which now exists as the National Association For the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

1924 - Sarah Lois Vaughan, American jazz singer, Nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One", she won four Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was given an NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989. Vaughan had numerous accolades and awards. Among other awards were: the album Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown and the single "If You Could See Me Now" were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, an award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and have "qualitative or historical significance." In 1985 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 1988 she was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame. She was given the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at the UCLA Spring Sing. San Francisco and Berkeley, California, made March 27 Sarah Lois Vaughan Day.

1927 - Mstislav Leopoldovich "Slava" Rostropovich, Soviet and Russian Cellist and Conductor. He is considered to be one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. (Here's an absolute favourite, Rostropovitch and Britten interpreting Schubert's Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A. Uploaded by RDZ Nagano. Accessed March 27, 2016.)

1942 - Michael Hugh York,  English actor. A two-time Emmy Award nominee, for the ABC Afterschool Special: Are You My Mother? (1986) and the AMC series The Lot (2001), he has appeared in more than 70 films, including Romeo and Juliet, Cabaret, The Three Musketeers, Logan's Run, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, and the Austin Powers film series (1997–2002).

1952 - Maria-Hélène Schneider, known professionally as Maria Schneider, was a French actress. In 1972 at the age of nineteen she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, but was traumatized by a rape scene and hounded by unsavoury publicity she subsequently declined to appear nude in roles for even the most prestigious directors. Although Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger showcased her abilities, a reputation for walking out of films mid-production resulted in her becoming unwelcome in the industry. An incautious attitude to drugs and their toll on her mental health made what should have been banner years for her increasingly chaotic. She re-established stability in her personal and professional life in the early 1980s, and became an advocate for equality and improving the conditions actresses worked under.

1963 - Quentin Jerome Tarantino, American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by nonlinear storylines, dark humor, aestheticization of violence, extended scenes of dialogue, ensemble casts, references to popular culture and a wide variety of other films, eclectic soundtracks primarily containing songs and score pieces from the 1960s to the 1980s. His film, Pulp Fiction, a crime comedy, was a major success and won him numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and the Palme d'Or, and has been nominated for an Emmy and five Grammys. In 2005, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In December 2015, Tarantino received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.

Leftie:
Prince Louis XVII of France
 

More birthdays and historical events, March 27 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1306 - Robert the Bruce is crowned king of Scotland and begins to fight for Scottish independence. England recognizes Scotland as a separate nation in 1328, one year before his death. 

1625 - James I, King of England and Scotland, dies and Charles I becomes King. He also claims the throne of France, though the French ignore him. His reign is fraught with religious and political conflict, resulting in civil war.  He believed that he had a "divine right" to rule, that his power is granted by God. He lost the English Civil War.

1745 - G.F. Handel's oratorio Belshazzar is first performed in London. 

1905 - Fingerprint evidence is used for the first time in Britain to solve a murder case, that of Ann and Thomas Farrow who had been killed when their shop was robbed. Alfred Stratton's thumbprint was found on their cashbox. 

1958 - Nikita Khrushchev, already the Soviet First Secretary, becomes the Premier of the U.S.S.R., and so now holds the two two offices. 

1973 - Sacheen Littlefeather, a young Native American woman, goes on stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to reject the award for Best Actor in The Godfather on behalf of Marlon Brando in protest at Hollywood's treatment of her people.

1989 - NATO gives an ultimatum to Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic, warning that Serbian military positions will be adopted if he does not withdraw Serbian troops from Kosovo. 





Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timestables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org


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